Vehicle Template Tips: Modify Using Your Software

Twice in one week, we spoke with vehicle template clients who called with questions about our templates. One was looking for a template we did have in our collection but was “wrong”. His client’s vehicle had windows on the rear driver side of a cargo van and no windows on the passenger side rear door. He wanted to know if we had a template that matched the client vehicle.

The second caller wished to wrap a box type commercial vehicle. He said the vehicle was exactly like our template except the length was off. We asked him if the wheel base was the same as the template and he said yes. The difference, he said, was in the overall vehicle length and, in reality, the length from the rear wheel axel to the back of the vehicle was a longer & the only difference.

At first, we were perplexed with both questions. To us, the answers were obvious. Why? Because we work with vector graphics ALL the time and not just with vehicle wraps. As we talked both through their problems, we wondered why the simple solution was not obvious to them. Then it clicked. We realized the two callers probably do NOT produce vector or digital graphics all the time & maybe ONLY did so when working with vehicle templates. It was an aha moment for us.

The simple solution? If you have the correct template for the vehicle model, alter the template to match the vehicle modifications using the magic of the graphics software of your choice. We use & prefer vector graphics so would make modifications in either CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. Can you make changes with bitmap graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop? Or any of the other graphics software our clients use? Of course you can.

The template that shows windows on both rear doors? Simply remove the windows on the template so it matches the vehicle you are going to wrap. Extend the length of the rear of a box truck? Measure the vehicle then alter the area of the template to match the length of the vehicle.

All of our templates are a place to start & drawn to scale for what the manufacturer produces for a basic vehicle model. However, any basic vehicle can be modified in a million different ways. Premium or custom packages from the auto manufacturer can change a vehicle’s specifics and your clients can add a myriad of after-market & custom modifications.

Since no template can take all modifications possible into consideration, that’s where your graphics software comes into play. We have a New To Vehicle Templates? tutorial that gets you started & talks about modifications. Learn how your graphics graphics software can be used to modify templates by finding your software on our comprehensive Tutorial Page. Bottom line? You CAN make these modifications when you design a vehicle wrap, using our templates. Go for it!